CONTRACTOR GIVEN ULTIMATUM

Coral Springs -- City commissioners, who learned on Tuesday that a contractor overseeing $15 million in city projects never received a bond to insure its work, gave the company two weeks to find a solution and decided to pay money the firm owes to angry sub-contractors.

"The City Commission should have been notified," said Vice Mayor Ed Heafy. "The city of Coral Springs has been put in jeopardy at the tune of $15 million."

Federal Construction Co. of St. Petersburg in January was awarded a bid to oversee construction of a community center, public safety building and a park in the city. The money to pay for the projects will come from a $16 million bond issue approved by voters in November 1985.

The bond is needed to insure the work of the company, city officials said.

Last May, the company was supposed to get a bond to guarantee its work on the public safety building but never did, officials said.

Federal Construction Co. officials told commissioners that they are working on a solution to get a bond.

But the company owes $500,000 to sub-contractors working on the projects and two of them already have quit because they have not received payment, officials said.